Yoongi was aware of Jungkook's presence, who was walking behind him a couple of steps away, letting Yoongi explore the place as he told him about the tree, the surrounding plants and the small insects - which actually they were fairies - who kept him nurtured and cared for. Fairies were shy creatures.
After a while admiring the place and every little thing that caught his attention, Yoongi realized that Jungkook was in the pond, kneeling in front of him and with his arms resting on the edge, talking to what seemed to be a water lily. Yoongi knew that inside that lily pad there was probably a fairy. Jungkook was smiling and bright-eyed, clearly enjoying whatever he was talking to the fairy.
That's why Yoongi tried not to get scared of seeing Jungkook by the pond pass through their bond. He knew that Jungkook wasn't in danger to be near that body of water, but Yoongi had not had a wonderful experience when he got his gem, so inevitably, he felt some apprehension.
"Hyung, come here. I want you to meet someone." Jungkook said as he waved his hand for Yoongi to come closer.
"Is it a fairy?" Yoongi asked, who still hadn't moved from his place.
"Yes. She is curious to know what my soulmate is like." The boy replied, oblivious to Yoongi's reluctance.
"You should be careful." Yoongi blurted out suddenly, leaving Jungkook confused. "There could be shadows in the pond."
There was a moment of silence before Jungkook laughed. "Don't worry about it, Hyung. There are no shadows in the pond. They can't enter such an environment."
"Of course they can." He replied. Jungkook frowned at Yoongi's change in attitude and the conviction with which he spoke.
"I saw them when I was little. When I went to get my gem. I stepped into a pond like that, and my gem glowed, but maybe it didn't do so strongly enough, because shadows immediately surrounded it. They were everywhere."
The sounds in the room stopped completely. Yoongi could only hear his breathing and feel his heart racing. There was not even the buzzing of the wings of the insect-camouflaged fairies. It seemed as if the world around him had stopped at his confession. He had told no one what had happened to him inside the pond, not even his mother.
When he looked up to see Jungkook's reaction, Jungkook was already looking at him. His fists were clenched and his jaw clenched, an obvious gesture of anger. For a moment, Yoongi thought that his anger was directed towards him, since this world was part of Jungkook, and the boy might have been offended because Yoongi had suggested that the shadows could be here.
Jungkook got up very slowly and walked towards him, wrapping him in a tight hug once he got the chance. The tension left Yoongi's body, who for a moment thought that he had upset Jungkook with his confession.
"I'm so sorry, Yoongi, Hyung. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but I assure you, there is no shadow here, no dark fairy that could harm you. I would never let them hurt you again."
Yoongi put his arms around Jungkook, clinging to him like he did that time, months ago. He knew that now the shadows couldn't touch him or get close to him, but his experiences with them were still burned into his mind.
"Sorry, Kookie." Yoongi apologized weakly. "I really like this place, it's just that seeing the pond, and you so close to it, made me remember everything and... Damn, I'm sorry for spoiling this moment."
"Shh, don't worry Yoongi, I get it. And you have spoiled nothing. I knew nothing, so surprise, that's just slight shocking. But you don't have to apologize for something you haven't done."
Jungkook kissed his hair, the skin of his cheek and his neck, trying to comfort him, letting him know that he was by his side. It worked. Yoongi returned the caresses soon after, ending with a kiss on the lips that were soft and desperate.
"Let's have a rest at the foot of the tree, what do you think?"
Yoongi nodded, and the two leaned against the trunk of the tree, Yoongi snuggled against Jungkook, letting himself be enveloped by his presence and by the sounds of the fairies that had resumed their labours. He fell asleep in a moment and only woke up again when the voices of two people talking reached his ears. When he opened his eyes, it was difficult for him to recognize where he was, but as sleep left his senses, he remembered where he was.
Jungkook had his back to him, talking to a woman who had also sat on the ground. He still felt a little sleepy, like he could sleep for three days straight, but he forced himself to sit up. The woman was immediately aware of his movements and made eye contact with him.
"Oh, you're awake. You must be Yoongi, right?" The aforementioned could only nod as Jungkook turned to look at him. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Jungkook has told me a lot about you. I am Hana."
"I hope they were good things." He answered, his voice hoarse from sleep and shaking the hand that the woman had extended to him.
"That comment should offend me, Hyung."
"Don't worry. He can only say good things about you."
"I was telling her what you told me earlier, about the pond."
"Ah, okay."
"And guess what. You've solved the riddle we have been trying to solve for years. "
"What do you mean?" Yoongi asked, confused.
"I feel a bit incompetent for not having realized it sooner, but I guess it's better late than never." The woman said with a sigh and a shrug. "For years we thought the dark fairies' targets were random. Later we realized that there was a relationship between their goals and the proximity of when these people would meet their soul mate. Even so, that information was of little use to us, since we could not predict who would be the next victim. But now that Jungkook has told me what happened to you at the pond, it all makes sense."
"One rule that the guides have, is to make sure that the person who is going to enter the pond has a positive emotional state. This means that they cannot feel fear when they enter, and our mission is to calm them, to eliminate that fear. You were scared when you came in, weren't you?"
"I never fully understood the process," Yoongi explained. "And the more questions I asked him to understand and be more sure, the more impatient he got. There came a time when he told me he couldn't wait all day for me, that more people were waiting, and that if I didn't get in right then, I would lose my chance to find my soulmate. So yes, I came in quite pressured and not sure what was waiting for me in the background."
The woman was left with her mouth open and her eyes wide with shock. "What a fucking bastard! That is against the regulations!" Jungkook tried to calm the woman, who kept insulting all those who had dared to do something like that. Hana was of average height, but Yoongi was sure that if the opportunity presented itself, she would dead punch whoever got in front of her.
"I'm sorry." The woman said once she composed herself. "But this is outrageous. I can't even imagine what you must have suffered in there. Why didn't you tell your parents anything? They could have reported it."
"At first I felt nothing, but when my gem glowed, they appeared and surrounded me. I felt like I was drowning. But then I was out, and that man was patting me on the back, congratulating me for making it."
Yoongi winced at the memory of a crooked and unpleasant smile. "Since he didn't explain the process to me in-depth, I didn't know if what had happened in there was normal or not. But when I told him I had seen something strange, he simply told me not to say anything to anyone, that it was something that happened only to a select few, that it was something special that others would not understand and that they would look on with envy. That they would make my life impossible for being different."
"Now that I say it out loud, it seems pretty obvious that I shouldn't have kept quiet and that I was lying. Well, I knew I wasn't telling the whole truth, but..."
"You were ten years old, Yoongi. Normally, you believe his words. And more if he told you that everyone would make your life impossible and that they would call you crazy."
"Yeah, well, I must carry it for the rest of my life, but at least I've been helpful."
Jungkook shook his hand between them, and Yoongi gave him a grateful smile. He was lucky to have the friends he had and to have found Jungkook in the darkness that had surrounded him for so long.
"I cannot erase your memory of what happened, but I can purify your gem from the presence of gems." Hana offered. "Although your gems have connected," she said, pointing to both of their gems, "there is still dark fairy energy in it, although it is not perceptible to the naked eye."
"And how do you manage to purify it?"
"You've got to get into the pond again," Jungkook answered for her.
Yoongi felt his body lose all heat at once, leaving him with a weight in the pit of his stomach that was hard to ignore. The only thing that prevented him from getting up and running was Jungkook's hand, not letting go while Yoongi absorbed what it entailed to release his gem from the shadows.
"I can come in with you, Hyung, right, Noona?"
"Of course yes. You don't have to do it alone. "
And what did he have to lose? His gem was already contaminated, he didn't know how much, by the energy of those dark fairies. They couldn't get close to him anymore, but he still had a part of them in his gem inside him, and he didn't want his bond with Jungkook to be tarnished by a handful of beings hungry for misery and suffering. A part of him still couldn't believe what he was about to do.
After a deep breath, he replied, "Okay, I will."
This story belongs to @nometoloko on AO3. I'm just her translator.
Too tired to think of something to say. Have a good day....?